The trouble with earbuds
by Melara Yuhi
Summary: A regular day in the houshold of the Gundam Pilots. Of course, Duo always gets into all the trouble...


Mel: *grins* Ok, you're probably all wondering why I disappear for 7 months, and then come back only to write something completely new and pointless instead of—

Tsuru: Continuing something old and pointless.

Mel: -_-() Thank you Tsuru. I don't know what I would do without you.

Tsuru: Probably leave for Kat's house again.

Mel: But she has a foreign exchange student from Japan! And Shoko is just so kawaii!!!! *grins*

Tsuru: *sighs* Oi…

Mel: ^_^() Yeah, sorry guys… the truth is, I was just doing other fun things. But… oh well.

Legal Crap: No, I did _not_ spend 7 months gaining the rights to Gundam Wing, or any other anime. Although, that would have been time well spent… *shrugs* Nothing has changed in the past 3 years, I still own jack-diddly-squat.

Mel: -.- even the lawyers forgot me…

Daichi: *comes in holding a tropical drink of some sort with an umbrella in it* Oi, Tsuru. This is the last of the Piña Colada. You want half? *realizes Mel is in the room* Oh, heh heh *hides drink behind back* Hi Mel. More work?

Mel: . You're giving him alcoholic beverages?!?!?!?! He's only 14!

Tsuru: Perfectly legal in Europe.

Mel: Are we _in_ Europe? No, I think not!

Tsuru: You were introducing a fic, weren't you?

Mel: ?.? Oh, yeah… right. Ok, here you go! The Trouble with Earbuds…..

Duo closed his eyes and swayed to the beat of his music, loosing himself to the sounds of X Japan. He had finally gotten his hands on the extended version of Art of Life, 29 minutes of pure, undisturbed music. He was in heaven.

"MAXWELL!!!" Duo winced when he heard Wufei's angry voice clearly above the music. Without opening his eyes, he reached over and turned the music up louder. "MAXWELL!" Wufei walked up to Duo with his hands over his ears and shouted at the boy at the top of his lungs, even though they were only a few inches apart.

"WHAT'S THAT FEI-KUN? I CAN'T HEAR YOU," Duo shouted as he turned the music up even louder. In his mind, this was war. Many times, he had disturbed the Chinese maniac's meditation and gotten severely punished for it, now it was his turn to feel the wrath of Shinigami.

"DUO!!!!" Unbeknownst to the two arguing boys, Heero slipped into the room with tissue wads stuffed into his ears and put his hand on the power cord… "I'M GOING" …and pulled. "TO KILL YOU!" Duo winced as Wufei's voice echoed through the now silent room.

"Heero! You turned my music off!"

"Five people live in this house, and all but one were suffering from a migraine."

"But… but…" Duo struggled to think of an argument, but his head had begun to ring from the long exposure to extremely loud music.

"You were supposed to be helping me figure out where they're building that new weapon." Duo sighed and turned to leave the room.

"Every day we go through this. I thought I told you to shoot the speakers today, Yuy." Wufei rubbed his temples and flopped down on the couch.

"**_KURENAI—_**" The music blasted again for a moment, surprising Wufei so much that he fell off of the couch and his upper half rolled under the coffee table.

"Sorry Wu-bear, but I had to get my disk." Duo pushed the eject button and took his X Japan CD out and grinned at the tangled boy on the floor.

"Maxwell," Wufei said through gritted teeth. "You would do well to leave before I regain my composure."

"Hai, hai." Duo laughed as he returned to his room

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

"Man… I don't see why they can't let me relax a little every once in a while. It's Wufei's fault anyway. He's the one that borrowed my headphones and broke them…"

"You should have known better then to lend them out then." Quatre walked into the room and handed Duo a box.

"Hmm? A present? Pour moi?" He grinned and took the box.

"If you'd like to think of it that way. I like to think of it as more of a remedy to the fact that I used all the aspirin in the house." Duo opened the box and found a set of earbuds.

"Awsome! These are a good brand too! I saw them in the store window the other day, but didn't have enough money for it and—"  
  


"Shh!" Quatre put his hand to his head. "I still have a headache from earlier.  Now use your gift and let me get some sleep. Ok?" Duo grinned and nodded.

"Hai! Thanks again, Q." Quatre smiled and left the room in search of a comfy place to lie down. "Let's see here… L in left… R in right…" Duo carefully pressed the earbuds into his ears and turned his music on. Unfortunately, the left earbud refused to stay in. "Odd…" Duo pulled up on the top of his ear and tried to insert the bud again. It stayed a little longer this time, but still fell out. "What's wrong with these things?" Becoming annoyed, he shoved the left earbud into an uncomfortable position, but it stayed. Alas, the right bud was less cooperative… "Kuso!" Duo roughly shoved  both buds into his ears, and this time they stayed, though they gave Duo a painful burning sensation in his outer ear.

Struck by sudden inspiration, Duo removed the offending earbuds and left the room in search of something. He shortly returned with a long piece of sponge-like rubber. He cut two short lengths of it, and hollowed out a small hole in the center, then he glued the tubes to the earbuds. After waiting a few minutes for it to dry, he tried sticking the new sponge-rubber tube into his ear, and it stayed wonderfully. "Yatta…" he sighed, and fell back against his bed to get lost in his music once again.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Heero glared at the sleeping boy. He was supposed to be a trained soldier, alert to his surroundings even in his sleep. Not sprawled over his bed with music blasting in his ears. What if there was an attack? The baka would be as helpless as a baby. 

"Duo!" He walked up to the said boy carefully, feeling that after shouting his name three times he had given enough of a warning to validate what he was about to do. He pulled his gun out and pressed it underneath Duo's chin and covering his eyes at the same time. The cold metal woke him up, at least. And, sensing danger, Duo stayed very still.

"Who are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Heero pressed the gun harder against Duo's neck, monitoring the boy's actions carefully. Duo swiftly brought his hand up and hit the gun to his left, loosening Heero's grip enough to wrench it out of his hands. He sat up and held the gun up against his attacker, then gasped.

"Heero! Oh shit, I nearly shot you! What's the big idea?"

"If I had been any one else, you would be dead right now." Duo blinked a few times, and stared at Heero.

"Hold on… I can't hear you." He reached down to turn off the music, but Heero was faster, and yanked the earbuds out of his ears.

"That was a stupid maneuver you pulled. I could have shot you before you got the gun out of my hands." Duo rubbed his head and looked at Heero.

"I still can't hear you… where are the earbuds?" Heero looked confused, and lifted up the wire in front of Duo's face. The sponge-rubber tubes were missing. "Damn it, part of it's still stuck in my ear." He reached up to pull the black rubber out of his ear, but it was too far back, and he couldn't get a hold of it. "Kuso!"

"Stop struggling. You'll make it worse." Heero grabbed onto Duo's arms to make his statement clear, then spoke very slowly and carefully. "Come with me." Duo furrowed his eyebrows, then nodded.

"Why the hell did you have to rip them out so fast, huh? All you had to do was tap me on the shoulder. It's not like I was asleep." Heero ignored Duo's complaints and lead him to the garage where he kept his tools. He pulled out a pair of long nosed pliers and put his hand on Duo's head.

"Hold still."

"W-what are you doing?" Heero pushed Duo against the wall and held his head there with one hand as he tried to grab hold of the black rubber with the pliers. Eventually, he got a good enough hold to pull it out.

"That was also a stupid idea. If the earbuds didn't fit, all you had to do was tell me. I have an extra set of headphones."

"So what was the whole 'attack Duo' thing about, huh? If I were any more out of it than I already am, I would have fired at you!" Heero roughly turned Duo's head around and began to work on the other ear.

"The safety was on. It wouldn't have done anything. And the gun wasn't loaded either." He pulled out the second rubber tube and put it in Duo's hand. "Now why don't you help me research like you were supposed to be doing in the first place."

"Can I have the headphones you were talking about?"

"Yes, as long as you work."

"Alright." Heero pulled out his gun in a flash and fired at the floor. Duo jumped as the loud sound thundered in his head. "Holy shit! You said that thing wasn't loaded!"

"I lied." Duo sputtered and stared at the Japanese boy.

"You're crazy! You're f—n' crazy!"

"Lies are dangerous, remember that." Duo stared wide eyed at Heero, then slowly turned to leave.

"I-I think I'll get to work on that research now…"

"Good idea."

"Yeah….."

~Owari~

Mel: TA DA!!!!!

Tsuru: o.O That was… odd….

Mel: *sticks tongue out* It was supposed to be.

Daichi: Can I go now?

Mel: *sighs* Yes, fine. Go.

Daichi: Good. *sips Piña Colada as he leaves the room*

Mel: -.- I thought you were going to take that away from him?

Tsuru: What gave you that idea?

Mel: I give up.

Daichi: *from other room* Good.

Mel: o.O Ooookay… Well, stay tuned for chapter 2, the original version! *grins*


End file.
